Michelle Clarke opens The Booktenders in York, looking to offer 'magic' of reading

YORK, Maine — “A town isn’t a town without a bookstore,” author Neil Gaiman once said, and Michelle Clarke said she has taken that quote to heart.

“York doesn’t have a bookstore,” Clarke said. “We really wanted to fill that gap.”

The Booktenders opened in May at 463 US Route 1. Clarke, who owns the shop with her husband, Rick, previously worked in publishing and has raised her children in York for the past nine years. She said in a highly digital age, she believes there are still plenty of residents who appreciate a physical book.

“There is something about having a book in your hands,” Clarke said. “We can provide a connection that you can’t get if you’re shopping online.”

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The Booktenders is a general interest bookstore that also features fiction, non-fiction, books for children and young adults, cooking, and other categories. She said they have also been getting donations of “previously loved books,” though most of the books are new. The store will be open six days a week, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Clarke said she knew as a young girl that she would one day open her own bookstore. She said as a 10-year-old girl she fell in love with reading, as well as sharing books with other people. As an adult, she is still much the same.

“I think books are sort of magical,” Clarke said. “I can spend hours in a bookstore or library.”

Clarke went on to work in publishing for 20 years, specifically focused on education and health care. She met her husband, a York native, while living in Philadelphia where they stayed for a number of years. They moved to York nine years ago to be closer to Rick’s family, as well as because they liked the local school system.

Clarke said the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown made her family reconsider their future plans and look for a new path. It was around this time, Clarke said, they noticed a space had opened up on Route 1 — a standalone building that was formerly a consignment shop. Clarke said they decided the timing was perfect and they signed the lease earlier this year to jump into the bookselling business.

“(The pandemic) helped us look at our priorities,” Clarke said. “Made us sort of think about what some of our long-term dreams are.”

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Bookstores have seen a decline in the new millennium. An article published last year by the U.S. Census Bureau reported there were 12,151 bookstores in the country in 1998, then as few as 6,045 in 2019. Their overall sales also dropped from $16.8 billion 2007 to $10 billion in 2017.

Clarke said she is still optimistic that The Booktenders can become a mainstay in York, partly because of the resources available to new store owners like her through the American Booksellers Association.

She is hopeful that The Booktenders can also become a new gathering place for locals that normally would need to travel as far as Portsmouth to find a new book. She is confident there are enough people like her in York who still appreciate a local bookstore.

“There’s something really cool about just walking into a bookstore and holding books in your hand,” Clarke said, “Discovering books you didn’t know you could read.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: The Booktenders bookstore opens on Route 1 in York, Maine